2002 Dodge Ram - New Lease On Life

Extreme Makeover: Ram Edition

Jonathan Vargas is not only a custom truck enthusiast; he is also the president of Xplizit car club. His 2002 Dodge Ram was featured in Truckin' back in early 2008 when it had teal marbleized paint with custom airbrushing, motorized tonneau cover, and it had a wild, Gucci interior. Now, as you can see, it has new paint, a crazy interior, and another custom tonneau.

Starting with the suspension, Jonathan had Sik Fabrication, in Corona, California, add a set of Contitech airbags up front, cut a C-notch in the frame, and add Universal Air airbags in the rear. The rolling stock that Jonathan chose was a set of Strada Corona 28x10-inch hoops wrapped in 295/25R28 Pirelli rubber. Under the suicide hood lies the stock 4.7L engine that has a K&N intake system and Gibson performance exhaust.

Moving to the body, Jonathan had Speed Tech Body and Paint of Santa Ana, California, shave the door handles and taillights, as well as remove the stock badges. A 2009 Dodge Ram front clip was sectioned, massaged, fitted with a T-Rex mesh grille and then installed. The new front end completely transformed the older Ram truck. A 27-inch hole was cut out of the tailgate for a 27-inch LCD to be mounted and Jonathan then had a custom three-piece tonneau cover made that houses three more 27-inch LCDs. The front two-thirds of the tonneau lifts straight up out of the bed with the three screens in it. The back third is split into two different parts that opens from each side and houses two sets of component speakers. To finish off the exterior, the hood was converted to a tilt-forward and was powered by an electric actuator from Electric Life, a T-Rex grille was installed, and a body kit was fabricated to give the appearance that this Ram is even lower than it is. After all of this work was done, the body was sprayed with several coats of Candy Trophy Gold.

As for the interior, the bench seat was cut down to buckets and a fiberglass center console was installed. A one-off sub mount built by J.B. Home and Audio Deign, in Fullerton, California, holds four MA Audio 12-inch subs. There are also five MA Audio component speakers, a Kenwood in-dash touch-screen head unit, and a 22-inch LCD screen in the dash. Fine Line Upholstery, also in Fullerton, then wrapped the seats in several different shades of tan leather and covered the headliner in tan suede.

After building this truck the first time and enjoying it for several years, Jonathan decided that instead of selling it and buying a new vehicle to build, he would completely change this one and it would essentially be a new truck. After a year of working on it and spending tons of cash, Jonathan has a truck that is so different from his original version that no one recognizes it. Jonathan wants to thank all of his sponsors for their help: Strada wheels, Kinetik batteries, Sik Fabrication, Fine Line Interiors, Chuy's Auto Electric, and Speed Tech Body and Paint among others.